SMS Bubbles is an application that pop up new SMS messages on your start screen as they are received.
May require application unlocking. If you have trouble installing the application because of certificate issues, app unlock your Blackjack2.
It’s finally here! You can now sync your Gmail and Google Calendar using Activesync on your Blackjack II! The means you can now sync your Gmail and manage your Google Calendar and Google Contacts from your phone!
Something to note: As far as I can tell you can only have a single ActiveSync connection at a time. If you connect to a MS Exchange server using ActiveSync for work, you won’t be able to Google Sync to sync your Gmail and Google Calendar items. If there is a way around this, please leave a comment!
Doom, now available for the Blackjack 2. Download it. Now.
This is an updated version of DOOM for the Blackjack 2 that lets you Strafe and Save your game!!!
The CAB includes the shareware WAD for DOOM 1 but you can download any DOOM 1 or DOOM 2 WAD file and copy it into C:\Program Files\DOOM
Note: you can only have 1 WAD file in your DOOM directory at a time. I suggest moving the WAD files you aren’t using to C:\Program Files\DOOM\WADs.
Check out the MyBlackjack2 Forums and the MoDaCo forums for more info on the game. Big Thanks to SPV3d (i think?) for the port and thanks to macatron for giving me the heads up about it!
You can download the previously posted RCX port of DOOM here (it doesn’t support strafing or saving).
Courtesy of macotran, here are the control:
The folks over at Smartphone: Nuts & Bolts have put together a great app that lets you configure the sliding panels on your Blackjack II running WM6.1. CHome Configurator lets you add, remove and re-order the sliding panels on your homescreen. You can even “Dock” the top item (which I by default the Clock) so it always shows. I really like this because it lets me know the time regardless of the slide i’m on.
CHome Configurator even lets you create new custom sliding panels (thought I haven’t played around long enough with it to figure out how to do this).
For more information on how to configure CHome Configurator, check out this thread in the forums.
This is a excellent program and thrill that the good people at Nuts & Bolts put it together and are letting us all use it for free!
Thanks to pixelsblur and jjnbm for making a note of this app in the forums!
So I’ve had a different version of a Mobile Registry Editor for the Blackjack 2 available on here for sometime — I apologize for realizing it sucked so bad. Today I found an AWESOME mobile registry editor by the name of CeRegEditor. Has has all sorts of cool features like Find, Import/Export, Reg > Cab, and so much more. It’s very, very nice — and Free to boot!
Use this to help out implementing the hacks & mods and tips & tricks. This application runs in Windows (not on your Blackjack 2) and connects to your Blackjack 2 via ActiveSync.
You’ll only want to use this if you know what a registry and are comfortable making changes to it. Messing up the registry can sometimes cause your phone to stop working and require you to do a hard reset to revert it to its original & functional state.
Flexilis is like if DashWire and ClamWin (or whatever your favorite anti-virus program may be) had a child. Flexilis is an anti-virus application for your Smartphone, prevents attacks from would-be-hackers, and back up your phone’s data, which is in turn accessible via a web front-end on flexilis.com.
This is a bit of speculation, but I believe smartphone with data connections are accessible via the internet, so hackers/viruses/malware/etc could try to gain unauthorized access to your device via the internet, im not sure if Flexilis would prevent Bluetooth based attacks, their knowledge base is still very small. Feel free to correct me on this in the comments.
Flexilis allows you to backup: Contacts, Pictures, Documents, Call History, SMS Messages, Audio and Video. I know you can ATLEAST restore Contacts, Pictures and Documents. It looks like I can restore SMS Messages one at a time. I hope as Flexilis matures they’ll augment their “Restore” functionality.
So sign-up for the beta, it looks like a pretty cool application and if they flush out their “restore” functionality they could become a very serious threat to DashWire.
BeeJive (sometime’s refered to as JiveTalk) has made a pretty slick mobile instant messanging client for the Windows Mobile 6+. It supports a wide variety of chat protocols and sports a easy to use interface that works well even on smaller screens (like the Blackjack II’s). I’ve replaced Palringo with BeeJive.. They’re very similar applications but BeeJive makes alittle better use of the screen real estate and I like how it notifies of new instant messages/updates to instant message conversations in the background.
BeeJive is currently FREE for Windows Mobile 6.x because its in beta — if/when BeeJive costs money I will most definitely switch back to Palringo.
BeeJive supports:
Much like Palringo (and most other mobile instant messanger clients) this application is a battery hog and will probably cut your battery life in half if leave it running in the background … So make sure to exit the program when you’re done using it!
Direct Download (Download Page)
After installing Windows Mobile 6.1 I decided to give Saman’s Smartphone Battery Meter another try. This battery meter puts a very thin battery meter at the very top of the screen. It gives you a really good idea how much batter life you have, much better than the default 4 bar battery meter that is default.
For some reason I didn’t like this battery meter as much when I was running Windows Mobile 6.0 – I think because it made the top icon bar feel too cramped.
When installing you may be notified that “this program was developed for a previous version of windows”. This is OK, continue installing.
After installing, restart your Blackjack 2.
(The battery bar is kind of hard to see in this picture, it’s much mroe visible on a smartphone screen)
Skyfire is in OPEN BETA. This means you can register to Skyfire and immediately start using the Skyfire browser. There is no longer a need to use a Beta key to access and download Skyfire.
Woo! I finally got my Skyfire Beta key — its only taken 3 months to get but its finally here.. and boy was it worth the wait. Skyfire is hands-down my favorite (windows) mobile browser. Skyfire takes a desktop web browser and moves it onto a mobile device. It’s similar to the iPhone’s Safari browser which renders web pages true to form and lets you zoom in and out to view different sections of the web page. This is how Skyfire works except the controls are a little more cumbersome when running on a non-touch screen device.
The thing that really amazed me about Skyfire was its ability to keep web pages looking and working just like they do on a desktop web browser. You can play YouTube.com video within the browser, use web sites that rely heavily on AJAX (I can even check MyBlackjack2.com and TheSmartFONE.com’s web stats in Google Analytics in Skyfire – and that is a VERY complex AJAX’d web site.)
Remember that Skyfire is still in beta so the client still has some issues. Since posting they’ve resolved some major issues including connection dropping and allowing users to download files.
Even in beta Skyfire has replaced Opera Mobile as my favorite browser.
Direct Download (Download Page)
The good people that brought us the infamous MoDaCo GPS Hack have done it again! They released another incredibly handy utility for all you Blackjack 2 users that don’t have unlimited data.
The MoDaCo No Data Utility allows you easily turn off your data connection so you don’t accidently use (especially while roaming!)
Note: You MUST unlock your phone with the SDA Application unlocker to use this program — Application unlocking your phone with just the MoDaCo GPS Hack/Application unlocker will not allow No Data to run properly.
No Data installs an easy to use shortcut in your Start Menu named “No Data”. Big thanks to Paul and the gang at MoDaCo for this handy app and thanks to Zak for giving me the heads-up about it!
Mobile Reversi is a very rudimentary port of the game Othello. The objective of this classic strategy game is to finish the game with the greatest number of pieces on the board. You can flip your opponent’s (the computer) pieces by positioning your pieces around their pieces. (Check out Wikipedia’s page for full instructions on how to play)
I’ve been a fan of Othello/Reversi for quite some time now and was thrilled to find a version for my phone. My one gripe is the computer plays it’s hand so quickly its hard to figure out which move it made (you can see the effects of the move, but its hard to see where the new piece was placed). Anyhow – a great strategy game that will undoubtedly waste many hours of your life (but in a good way).
“My Score” is the computer’s score, “Your Score” is your score. … and oh yeah, there is one difficulty setting: Hard 
Base Hue Express is a cool little app that lets you easily change your phone’s color scheme on the fly. You can select the Base Hue for the Header and Soft-key bars. It will also change the color of some of the other elements on your phone (scroll bars, menu backgrounds, menu highlights, etc) as well to a matching lighter hue of the color you select.
All in all, Base Hue Express is a convenient app that lets you easily customize your color scheme on the fly (which is great is you don’t like a color scheme that came with a theme you like). I’ve package Base Hue Express up in an easy-to-install/uninstall CAB file — The CAB file will install a shortcut in your Start Menu.
If you decide you want to revert to your theme’s original Default color scheme after using Base Hue Express:
… So a day or two after my post announcing Viigo RSS Reader as the best free RSS Reader out there, I get an e-mail from Jon over at FreeRange notifying me the FreeRange RSS Reader for the Blackjack 2 has become completely free (it used to cost $25 a year).
I cross my fingers, hoping it would suck (so I didn’t have to write another post), and loaded it up onto my Blackjack 2. Much to my dismay it turned out to be a FANTASTIC RSS Reader beating Viigo as my favorite! (Viigo is still a great RSS Reader, but FreeRange is better)
Screenshots of fullscreen mode using Darkness Theme, Auto-Image-Download Disabled
Here’s what sets FreeRange apart from the crowd:
WM 6.0 Direct Download (Download Page)
For the past couple week’s I’ve been trying to do my part and take mass transit to work. Its only a 15 minute ride on the bus, which happens to the perfect about of time to toss on some tunes, check my favorite RSS feeds and respond to e-mails. The first couple of days I used Windows Media Player 10 Mobile for mp3 play back, but soon got annoyed at the controls, and song/album selection. I finally caved and dug up the CAB file for TCPMP (I was holding out until the BetaPlayer is released) and I was very pleasantly surprised.
TCPMP’s interface doesn’t look as slick as Windows Media Player, but I love all the features and extended functionality.
Pros
Cons
There are also additional playback plug-ins available at bottom of the TCPMP Download Page that allow you to play FLAC, AC3, FFMPEG, VORIS, and other file formats.
Depending on the size/quality of your videos you may have to decrease the Video quality to “Low” or “Lowest” .. this shouldn’t make much of a perceivable drop in video quality (the Blackjack 2′s screen is so small that any decrease in “source” quality is washed out by the small resolution) , but the playback will be much smoother. I had to do this for my Flight of the Conchord’s clip (as seen above in the screenshot) which was 240MB for a 26 min file @ 624×352 .. I think videos that have a native resoluton of 320×240 will play back without issue but I have yet to test this theory.
Viigo has become my favorite RSS reader for the Blackjack 2. I’ve hesitated to post a RSS reader because until I tried Viigo, I wasn’t entirely blown away. The stock Blackjack 2 RSS Reader is decent, but it’s a pain adding new feeds (no copy/paste on WM6). I tried out mDigger for awhile but something about it just seemed a little too clunky – I can’t put my finger on it.
I’ve been running Viigo for the past couple of days and am very pleased. Here’s what I really like about it:
To use Viigo you’ll need to register and create an account with them (something you can actually do IN the Blackjack 2 client application!!) Using your account information, you can log in to Viigo’s Web front end, which is pretty plain, but allows you to manage easily your RSS feeds.
Kevtris is an incredibly well executed FREE Tetris clone for the Blackjack 2.
Kevtris’ features include:
Evernote has gone public! Sign-up for your Evernote account at Evernote.com today!
Evernote is a interesting online service that helps you manage your life via “notes”. Evernote has released a client app that provides a simple yet effective interface for creating text, picture and voice notes on your Smartphone. These notes are synced to Evernote’s online servers and can be managed via a web front end using either your computer or Smartphone.
Evernote is a cool service built on a great idea. I think it could prove to be a very powerful tool prove if used correctly and consistently.
The main reason I tried Evernote out is I have the worst time remembering what I need to pickup from the store. Over the course of a week I’ll think of several out of the ordinary things that I need to buy – of course, when I go to the store at the end of the week, I’ve forgotten what these things are.
Before Evernote I didn’t have an convenient way to record these random shopping list items… Sure, I could write out a shopping list, but i’d often think of things when I wasn’t at home or far enough away from the list where I was just too lazy to run over and add it — plus im the kind of guy that cant hold onto a loose piece of paper to save his life.
Enter Evernote. Now I grab my phone (which I keep on me nearly all the time), fire up Evernote, and create a quick text, picture or voice note, and add it to my Evernote “Shopping List” Notebook. When im at the store, I pop open the Notebook and voila, I know exactly what I need to buy. Its especially cool because I can take quick pictures of stuff like an empty toothpaste tube so I can make sure to get the right flavor (I have the darndest time remembering what flavor of Aquafresh I like).
Anyhow – enough of my rant. Like I said, Evernote is cool, but it something you have to learn to integrate into your everyday routine to be truly useful. If youre not willing to do this, then it won’t be much use to you.
The only thing I don’t like about Evernote is that it uses your Smartphone’s web browser (PocketIE, Opera Mobile, etc) to view your notes. Sure it’s fast and clean, but I think it could be fastER and cleanER if they integrated this functionality into the Smartphone client app.
To use Evernote you must create an account on Evernote.com.
Direct Download (Download Page)
Finally – an automated method for copying SIM Contacts to the Outlook Contact list!! This application is GREAT for folks moving to a Blackjack 2 and have all their contacts on their SIM card!
I ran it and it dumped all the contacts from my SIM card to my Outlook contact list without any problems!
To use this program:
After I completed the migration of contacts I deleted m2SimCopy (Start > Settings > Remove Programs) since I figured I’d never need to use it again.
Big thanks to Mike for finding this gem — and big thanks to Marauder for creating this handy little app.
Super Nintendo Emulation has arrived. Pocket SNES is a great Super Nintendo Emulator for the Blackjack 2. The graphics are superb, as to be expected, and it plays pretty well. The one thing I’m getting used to is the 4 button key placement (A, B, X, Y) .. i haven’t found the perfect key mapping to allow me to easily hold down multiple buttons at once.
The CAB file installs a PocketSNES shortcut in Start > Games.
When you start PocketSNES the first time, go to Options > Keys… and define you’re all your keys, especially the “Menu” key. (I was unable to figure out what the default “Menu” key mapping was after I entered the game)
To download SNES Roms visit RomNation or Google “SNES Roms Download”.
Note: You will not be able to download ROMs directly to your smartphone using PocketIE (Mobile Internet Explorer). PocketIE supports very few mime-types/file extensions for download and ROM files aren’t included. I suggest using Opera Mobile to download the ROM files directly to you Smartphone, or download them to your computer and copy them over to your Smartphone using ActiveSync/Bluetooth/etc.
If you have are having problems installing and using the PocketSNES emulator, checkout this YouTube video.
Performance suggestions:
If you want sound, make sure: Settings > Sounds > Other Sounds > Wheel Key sound > On (Thanks to shoemup for the tip!)
Disclaimer: Please verify the legality of any ROM file you download – some ROMs may be legal to download, others may not be.
PicoDrive is a great open source Sega Genesis/MegaDrive emulator. With PicoDrive you can play your favorite Sega games like Sonic, Alterted Beast and Splatterhouse! The graphics are very nice and the game play is pretty smooth. Some ROMs may not work 100% with PicoDrive, but there’s only one way to find out.
I suggest turning off the Sound because on some games to prevent buggy behavior.
The CAB file installs a PocketSNES shortcut in Start > Games.
You can download Sega ROMs from RomNation, RomWorld, or just Google the term “Sega Roms”. I suggest making a special folder on your Storage Card or in /My Documents/ that contains all your Sega ROM files.
Note: You will not be able to download ROMs directly to your smartphone using PocketIE (Mobile Internet Explorer). PocketIE supports very few mime-types/file extensions for download and ROM files aren’t included. I suggest using Opera Mobile to download the ROM files directly to you Smartphone, or download them to your computer and copy them over to your Smartphone using ActiveSync/Bluetooth/etc.
Disclaimer: Please verify the legality of any ROM file you download – some ROMs may be legal to download, others may not be.